CNN Making documentary of Civil Rights icon John Lewis

Carol Ozemhoya | OW Contributor |
5/9/2019, 9:52 a.m.

John Lewis, the civil rights icon and congressman from Georgia, will be the subject of an upcoming documentary from CNN films, reports Variety. Director Dawn Porter (“Gideon’s Army”) has already started shooting the project, following the Democratic congressman as he worked to flip the house in the 2018 mid-term elections. She also followed Lewis as he worked behind-the-scenes during the recent government shutdown and as the Democrats took control of the House.

In addition to interviews with Lewis, Porter plans to rely on archival footage to chart Lewis’ social activism, as well as his career in Washington, D.C., where he has advocated for voting rights, gun control and healthcare reform. CNN Films will retain the North American broadcast rights for the film.

The untitled film is being produced by Porter and Laura Michalchyshyn for Trilogy Films, with Erika Alexander and Ben Arnon of Color Farm Media. CNN Films has had a lot of success in the documentary space in recent years. It produced the Oscar-nominated “RBG,” a look at Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, as well as the box office hit “Three Identical Strangers,” the story of triplets separated at birth. Lewis walked with Dr. Martin Luther King on many occasions and was battered and beaten alongside him in the ‘60s. He was elected to Congress in 1987 and has served ever since.